Notice: An SCA Grump

[hrj]

I'm going to be good and not post this on my kingdom's mailing list. And I suppose that since I'm not going to the event in question, the matter has, in theory, no direct impact on me. But when I read endless announcments about how my kingdom's "official kingdom party" at an SCA inter-kingdom war is going to be a Hawaiian luau theme, complete with tiki bar and blender drinks, I really REALLY start wondering when the alternate reality split off in which the SCA no longer has anything to do with medieval history. Would it kill folks to hold their egregiously non-medieval parties as non-SCA events? I mean, it's one thing to be indifferent to putting a lot of time and energy into creating medieval ambiance at events (as opposed to falling back on "generic SCA") but I just don't get spending all that extra time and energy to create a slug-you-in-the-face ANTI-medieval ambiance. Folks, we all have non-SCA lives. We can all throw non-SCA parties for our friends. Why do the people who should be setting an example for the kingdom choose to set this example? (No need to answer -- I know, I know. But I needed to rant. Badly.)

Comments

[etfb.livejournal.com]

Every now and then you'll get some tedious old flates veteres ranting about how such-and-such an activity is unacceptable in the SCA and the people putting in a lot of hard work and money to make it happen should all just go away. In general, the only response is to ignore the whingers and hope their persistent bad humour gives them vitriol poisoning and they stop bugging the rest of us.

This is not one of those times.

Hawaiian luau theme??? What are they thinking? They're on crack; it's the only possible explanation.

Lone Court member raises her hand: it's worse than that

[helblonde.livejournal.com]

Yes, I am also appalled at the concept: the Viking Luau. (Truly, my first comment to Calistotoni was: "but the vikings never went to Hawaii".)

However, I am grateful that the first plan fell through and the Viking Luau was not held at Crown. The casino night was switched with the luau because some stuff fell through.

I am sad that they did not come up with a medieval theme. As an "official" party, it lacks inclusion, as is mentioned in the comments here, because it the primary focus is drinking (the hula dancers fell through). Even for some of us who are old enough to drink, raucus drunkenness is not an evening of happiness.

+putting my happy face back on+

Pennsic?

[albionwood.livejournal.com]

If this is for Pennsic, then it makes a weird kind of sense. They've already got every other kind of party on every other theme imaginable, including even some medieval ones... It really is the best and the worst, all at once. (Of course one could wish one's own Kingdom landed somewhere a little closer to one end of the spectrum than the other!)

Re: Pennsic?

[hrj.livejournal.com]

It's West-An Tir, alas. I've kind of joined those who don't really consider Pennsic to be an SCA event (in the restrictive sense).

Re: Pennsic?

[albionwood.livejournal.com]

Ah. Well, that is a shame, then.

About Pennsic, I'm with you. Lot more fun that way.

[gunnora.livejournal.com]

I've felt this way for years about the dominance and endurance competition that is the Ansteorran Chili Party at Pennsic.

I have sat and watched people take chili done with spices not chosen for taste but solely burn, and eat it while pretending to enjoy with gusto in the stupidest machismo competition EVAH!

Don't get me wrong, when *I* make chili there is definite heat... but the taste has to be worth the burn. And when I cook for SCA parties, I'd much rather enjoy experimenting with medieval food.

Heck, if they want a machismo competition, there are plenty of medieval foods they could choose that would do the trick.

AND (oops, soapbox) I understand wanting to have a fun convivial party. But has your kingdom no underage folk who either (a) can't participate since they are not of legal drinking age or (b) sneak booze more easily pretending that the "virgin margarita" they claim they have doesn't have six shots of tequila?

And what about legal liability for those who drink? "Official Kingdom Party" -- they need to watch that closely because you cannot use SCA funds for booze so far as I know. And by dubbing it "official" is someone gets drunk and falls in a hole, or gets drunk then decides to go driving, or a minor gets into the booze, the kingdom might find itself facing substantial liability exposure.

(kicks soapbox back under the table)

I feel your pain here.

[goldenstag.livejournal.com]

The official Kingdom party thing is very odd, and I agree that a luau theme is weird and wrong. The concept of some sort of official Kingdom party at an inter-Kingdom event is not necessarily a bad one, but the theme could easily be something within the scope of the SCA. Heck, the "Iron Bartender" competition at June Crown struck me as all wrong, too ...

[cellio]

Oh, yes -- definite agreement here!

OTOH

[albionwood.livejournal.com]

wondering when the alternate reality split off in which the SCA no longer has anything to do with medieval history.

It must have happened before I joined... this kind of thing has been going on pretty much all the time, to varying degrees. Especially at the Royalty level.

[duchessletitia.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it made me want to barf. (But I didn't)

[acanthusleaf.livejournal.com]

Many SCA people have no other social life. Their entire existence is taken up in this organization, so rather than try to have a party in the real world, which might conflict with an event, they cram all their other social activities into this one. That they don't fit doesn't matter.

I got sh*t for having my wedding on a Sunday that was the second day of the Mists-Cynagua War (way back when). I told the guy, Tough. This is the real world, and be thankful I didn't take your Saturday. I only invited him because I like his wife anyway. :-)

[shalmestere.livejournal.com]

Many SCA people have no other social life. Their entire existence is taken up in this organization, so rather than try to have a party in the real world, which might conflict with an event, they cram all their other social activities into this one. That they don't fit doesn't matter.

Hold the calls, folks--I think we have a winner :->

I've harbored similar grumpy thoughts about many such activities in the SCA--for example, why do some SCA groups put so much energy into teaching OOP dances like late Playford, Regency, and international folkdance when there are clubs outside of the SCA that devote themselves specifically to these dances? Because some people view the SCA as social "one-stop-shopping," that's why :-/

Another Possibility

[shalmestere.livejournal.com]

Why SCA Tiki Night? Why Camo Elizabethan? Why the "Star Wars" theme played on bagpipes?

To use a TV metaphor, people would rather be Hawkeye than Chahles Emahson Winchestah. ("Look! I'm irreverent and free-spirited! I'm not a stuffed shirt! I Don't Take This Stuff Too Seriously!)

I noticed your grump

[thread-walker.livejournal.com]

LOL... sorry, but I could not resist a play on words on your subject line. I crack myself up, which is probably good since I doubt anyone else is laughing.

I hate the smell and noise of the "booze wacker". The gent who came up with it is amazingly clever. But the device itself is an eye/noise/ear sore.

I enjoy discovering history through experiencing our "recreations" of it. I also think that bending the boundaries can be fun, as in "let's not completely bind ourselves to just the stuff that has irrefutabley been documented". And for private parties.. well, those are private and I can see how folks would occasionally get a hoot out of a "come as your favorite E-wok in costume" (or whatever) as a sort of one-off.

However, I feel very strongly that, as a triple peer of the realm who has sworn the tradional oath to King, Crowns and Kingdom that a Kingdom- hosted party should only draw on the roots of the SCA and therefore be based solely on material from Lord of the Rings. I want to be a Rohirrim.

:-)

Happy Thursday

Re: I noticed your grump

[goldenstag.livejournal.com]

Hey, Robert of Dunharrow was at the event last weekend! (Dunharrow being right out of LoTR ...)

Re: I noticed your grump

[thread-walker.livejournal.com]

that gave me the only giggle I've had today.

I need to come up with (yet another) alternate persona based on LoTR...

wheee! Maybe for Saturday night at Oct Crown. LOL...

Re: I noticed your grump

[goldenstag.livejournal.com]

Heh. I figure since Robert dates back to the "A.S. Single Digits" ... it must be period (for the SCA, anyway).

Re: I noticed your grump

[j-i-m-r.livejournal.com]

So was Verena of Laurelin :-)
ahh, naming practices in AS single digits.

Re: I noticed your grump

[goldenstag.livejournal.com]

Forgot ... yeah. There was a guy in Oertha (who moved there from somewhere else) who called himself Aldarion, although that one wasn't registered (Aldarion, son of Aragorn and Arwen Evenstar).

[patoadam]

I've never been in the SCA but your complaint certainly seems reasonable to me.

Have you seen this thoughtful post about OOP issues in general? I don't know if you will agree or disagree with it, and I don't know what the Right Answer is. Just thought you might enjoy the post.

WE all have our grumps and issues on the OOP hit parade.

[annecathryn.livejournal.com]

I know what mine is and I usually avoid it like the plague it has become. ADD TO THIS, that my particular grump is "in vogue" and I spend a lot of time being somewhere else. I vote with my feet when I see pirates or fairies because I have the funny idea that they don't belong in "tourney" environment. I have less of an issue with them when I see them in war but a tourney or court environment?

I'm with half a dozen other posters on this one, you aren't wrong to be upset or annoyed by what feels like a form of disrespect for the game.

Problem is that as long as we can't replace it with something just as popular it is going to continue happening?

What could we replace it with?

Re: WE all have our grumps and issues on the OOP hit parade.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

It's not that it strikes meas "disrespect for the game" so much as that it strikes me as a massive failure of imagination -- not even so much imagination about the types of medieval fun there are to be had (an argument that goes off into other tangents) but a failure of imagination about what types of other social interactions are possible for people who know each other through the SCA.

The problem with trying to fing something to replace this sort of event is that you first have to determine what the abstract functional category is that people are filling with things like "hawaiian luau". I rather doubt that the category is as general as "enjoyable activities in the evening at SCA events". It's more likely to be a category defined by things like "activities for which I can find props at Party Warehouse" or "activites that let me feel transgressive" (as shalmestere suggested), or even things like "activities that enable me to employ a recently-acquired mundane skill-set" or "activities I associate with past happy experiences". If a different activity doesn't fit the hidden (and usually unexamined) category features, then it can't succeed as a replacement.

I wasn't entirely being rhetorical when I said I really don't understand why people feel the urge to do events like this in the context of the SCA. And I want to re-emphasize that this isn't a grump simply about some activity being OOP -- it's a grump about people working so hard and going so far out of their way to do so.

(On the other hand, if commentary is personal validation, I now know what sort of topic to post if I'm feeling lonely!)

Re: WE all have our grumps and issues on the OOP hit parade.

[j-i-m-r.livejournal.com]

A possible answer to the "what to replace this with" would be a masque or carnival type of activity. It can involve colorful foolish clothing, party supply shops might supply passable pseudo props, and much drinking and acting silly can occur. Perhaps a notion to work with ... a big carnival party at Beltane (while March fits the calendar date better, it is often a bit cold and wet). If people see foolish fun happening, that also happens to be period, it could work, maybe ... not holding my breath or anything :-)

[dame-cordelia.livejournal.com]

I enjoy the attempt at doing things in a medieval way, and think I've gotten better at it through the years.

But I don't want to go to an SCA luau. Nor have I been within hearing distance of the booze whacker. For me SCA events are already jarring enough when people make an attempt at doing things in a period way because we can never get particularly close to medievan ambiance at a tent city on the weekend nor in a modern building.

Unlike some people, I have a life and friends outside the SCA.